Giants confident of making Super Bowl run

What in the name of Rex Ryan is going on here?

Three weeks ago, the Giants were embarrassed at home by Rex Grossman and the Redskins and were in the middle of yet another second-half swoon that this time was going to cost the coach his job.

Two wins later and they're brash, bold and very . . . Jet-like.

Maybe when they beat their green brothers on Christmas Eve, they wound up with more than a little bit of the Jets' moxie and bravado. In the previous two seasons, January was filled with predictions and proclamations by the Jets. Now the Giants apparently feel the need to fill the void.

Tom Coughlin may believe talk is cheap, but few of his players seem willing to play it tame.

"I know we can [run the table]," linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka said Thursday. "This is definitely a Super Bowl team. We just have to go out there and get it done."

The Giants host the Falcons on Sunday in a wild-card game, but they're clearly looking at the entirety of the playoffs and the possibility of advancing through the tournament. Confidence is soaring, especially with an opportunity to exact revenge on the Packers and 49ers -- the NFC's top two seeds, both of whom beat the Giants in close games. Heck, while they're at it, maybe they'll even hope to tackle the Ravens in February to make up for Super Bowl XXXV. It'll be the Big Blue Redemption Tour.

"We can definitely make a lot of noise in this run," Justin Tuck said.

Ahmad Bradshaw was asked if he can see the Giants making a month-long charge at the title. "Oh, yeah," he said. "No doubt in my mind."

Naturally, Brandon Jacobs had to get in on the fun. He's part of the first Giants backfield to finish last in the NFL in rushing in almost 60 years. Defenders may be able to stop him on fourth-and-1, but that statistical realization would not stop him from speaking out.

"I honestly don't really see a reason why we can't [run against the Falcons]," he said. "I have confidence in our running game, which hasn't been up to par this whole season, but this is another season and hopefully things will work out for the better . . . I don't see why we can't run the ball in the playoffs."

Strangely enough, the one player who has been known to make bold predictions this season has declared himself out of the prophecy business. Antrel Rolle, who guaranteed that the Giants would make the playoffs in early December, has avoided any questions about Super Bowls and paybacks. He's focused on the Falcons, he says. But even he couldn't help but note the team's level of confidence. "We're swagged out right now," he said this week.

Rolle's one-game-at-a-time approach may be a little too slow for some of his teammates -- the ones who are sniffing a Lombardi Trophy and apparently trying to figure out where they could fit a fourth one in the trophy case in the lobby of the Timex Performance Center.

"I think we're at the peak of our confidence right now for this entire season," Kiwanuka said. "We had some injuries early on in the year; you can point to a number of different things for reasons why we weren't playing the way we should. But the issue is right now we're finally clicking and we're getting there."

They've come a long way from that desolate, deflated feeling after the loss to the Redskins, when confidence was at its lowest point. Now?

"It's high," Osi Umenyiora said. "We've been through a lot, and we've weathered every storm there's been. There have been so many things and adversity and ups and downs this year and we've been through everything. To be playing the way we're playing right now, at the right time, I think gives us a lot of confidence."

And they're not shy about sharing it.